I don't think there is any mention of rankings in your post. What did that look like?

Also assuming you guys changed your URL because your team stated they performed better, did you guys change your title and H1s? Descriptions? I don't see how users perform better from reading the URL, therefore they must've changed title, internal linking taxonomy etc.

301 redirects can't have this major of an impact in terms of rankings. Or at least shouldn't.

Hey Larry,It is usually best to have them remove just in case. Naturally, spammy links are just an occurrence and there will never be a for sure way to stop it. I suggest trying to get some of them removed either by contacting the webmaster or just simply disavowing those links.Disavowing should be a last resort as I've remember reading that if you don't have a penalty, it is best not to disavow them in case there is a negative effect.

Great article for some general information. I haven't had the chance to dive into CSE and the metrics of Google Shopping ever since it became part of Google's paid services but I'm curious how effective you believe unique products fare? i.e. custom products with unique product names.

The future of SEO will be really dependent on awesome content, it will be good for everyone to take notes and compile a best practice for creating better content.This helped and I will be tucking away some of the few things you reminded me of. Take notes!

This is indeed interesting, and really makes me worry about the future of SEO. Let's face it, SEOmoz.org is not going to get hugely impacted but we are talking about small to mid sized websites that 75%+ is coming from organic searches. That can be a huge problem.